Chapter 44: Topical Analysis

~ Jaden attained the top of the hill and paused to catch his breath, looking back. He could barely see Takyle, moving steadily towards a stand of brush and palms and Andrew was out of sight. Jaden shielded his eyes from below and scanned the dessert all around him. At first he didn't see anything, but then he noticed a strange swirl in the blowing sand not far off. The wind was catching on the corner of what Jaden dearly hoped was a rock of some sort. He slid down the far side of the dune and set off again. He checked his watch and then cursed himself for not marking time when the clock had started ticking on the media station. Oh well, that couldn't have been more than five minutes ago.

Jaden waded through the loose sand, attempting to keep his face at least partially shielded from the hot grit. The wind was picking up, whistling over the dunes with a low and eerie wail. Jaden reached the stone he'd spotted on the upper edge of the dune and, to his surprise, found it to be one of the top corner stones of a doorway, set in the side of the hill facing away from his vantage point. It looked like the entrance to an ancient tomb from some low budget archaeological adventure movie.

"Oh great," he thought. "Let's get all Indiana Jones-y shall we?" He rolled his eyes, and pulled out his flashlight. He shone it around just inside, inspecting the walls and ceiling.

"What are you looking for? Booby traps?"

"Yes!" he told himself sternly. "Better safe than sorry!" He cautiously took a step into the tomb. Nothing bad happened so he took another.

The chamber Jaden had entered wasn't very deep and wasn't very impressive. The walls were made of stone exactly the same color as the sand, and they were devoid of any interesting markings. Just across from Jaden though, was another doorway, and this one had a carved and painted lentil and posts. The figures looked Egyptian. Big surprise. Shining his torch through the door Jaden could just barely see something glinting out of the darkness. Jaden moved forward into the second room, his time constraints causing him to be bold. This room was also mostly empty, except for a backless Egyptian chair, and on the chair sat a scepter topped with the golden head of a little vulture.

Jaden peered around himself looking for...crocodiles or a boulder or something. He cautiously approached the chair, and searched around it.

"I'm looking for a key, code, or sphere," he reminded himself. He reached out and laid a gentle hand on the scepter. He looked around. Nothing happened. He slowly picked it up and turned it over in his hand. Three strings of eight numbers were scratched into the shaft. Arabic root numbers.

"How very authentic," he muttered and, gripping the scepter, stepped away from the chair, still expecting something to happen to him. He waited stock still for a moment, watching, listening, and then bolted for the door. There was a crash from behind, and he felt a whoosh of air rush past him. He stumbled out into the daylight and kept going. After about thirty yards he stopped and turned to look back. The tomb entrance shook and trembled, dust spilling out of the opening as the stone sank back into the sand, the dune swallowing it whole, filling and hiding it.

Jaden watched until it had disappeared from sight altogether, then he looked down at the rod in his hand. The golden eye of the vulture glinted up at him. He realized that he was still holding his flashlight in his other hand. He switched it off, returning it to its pouch on his belt, and started back towards the media station.

"That was easy," he thought. ~